Legal intake for law firms
Legal intake is the most efficient place to structure your case data.
Intake is the first clean chance to define the claimant, parties, dates, documents, sources, corrections, and missing information once. OBE asks the questions configured for the case type, reads the records, and builds a source-linked file that staff and lawyers can review without reconstructing the same matter downstream.
Questions fit the case type
Each claimant gets the approved questions and document requests.
Documents become usable facts
OBE finds the dates, parties, terms, and events in the supporting records, then leaves each one as a source-linked proposal for staff to check.
People handle the judgment calls
Staff check gaps and conflicting information. Lawyers make the legal decisions.
Case study / Bennett Legal
Bennett Legal's annual comparison was $44,000 for Filevine, $21,000 for Moxo, and $22,000 for data extraction pipelines, totaling $87,000. Staff and lawyer time were excluded.
A lead could answer questions, send records, and speak with staff. When the firm took the case, parts of that intake record had to be entered again. One solar-dispute workflow became the starting point for OBE.
Read the Bennett Legal case studyI · After someone submits
A completed form is only the start of the file.
Many intake tools stop once the form is complete. Someone still has to chase the missing agreement, read the attachments, compare two different dates, and type the result into the case system.
OBE works on that material as it arrives. Claimant answers, emails, recordings, and documents become proposed case facts, with the original evidence still attached before review begins.
This overview connects the rest of the library. The commercial pages cover the software, configured services, recorded-call intelligence, and mass tort intake, while the blog goes deeper on process design, staffing, automation limits, and product evaluation.
II · From inquiry to review
A reviewer should be able to see where a fact came from.
OBE can ask the next configured question, request a missing document, and propose facts from what comes back, while keeping any missing record or disagreement between sources visible for a reviewer.
Keep the inquiry together
Keep forms, messages, calls, and uploads together.
Ask the next useful question
The case-type rules your firm approves can ask the next question, request missing evidence, and route an exception to the right reviewer.
Pull facts from the evidence
OBE proposes the facts the matter calls for.
Go back to the source
Before approving a proposed fact, the reviewer can open the exact answer, recording, or document page that supports the proposed value.
Leave decisions with people
Authorized staff resolve exceptions. Attorneys assess the proposed claim.
III · Where to begin
Start with a file that made someone do the same work twice.
Use a problem your team remembers. Perhaps staff entered the same information twice, a lawyer reopened every PDF before a review call, or a campaign lead sat untouched because nobody knew which record was missing. That file is a useful first test.
Carry the record into the case
The accepted record moves forward without retyping.
Begin with one case type
We configure one case type around the questions, expected documents, handoffs, and review rules your team already uses every week.
Make recorded calls useful
Create a readable transcript, flag unanswered questions, and give staff one place to confirm or correct every proposed answer from the call.
Use one campaign playbook
Every lead follows the document requests, review path, and exception rules that the firm approved for that campaign and case type.
IV · Who decides
Your firm keeps control of acceptance and legal judgment.
OBE assembles the submitted material into a source-linked record that staff and lawyers can open before deciding what should happen next. Your firm controls acceptance and engagement. Lawyers make legal judgments and advise clients.
OBE provides software and implementation. Live reception and legal advice are outside the service, and any commitments on savings, speed, capacity, completeness, or outcomes belong in the signed agreement.
Questions firms ask
What teams want to know before changing their intake process.
01What is legal intake?
Legal intake is the work between a prospective client's first contact and the firm's decision to open, refer, hold, or decline the matter. It gathers the answers and records a reviewer needs, including conflicting details and missing information.
02How is legal intake different from a CRM?
A CRM tracks contacts and stages. OBE also asks the configured questions, reads supporting evidence, and prepares case data for review. If the firm accepts the matter, the same record moves into case management without manual re-entry.
03Does OBE answer calls for the firm?
No. The current service does not include live answering, bilingual reception, after-hours coverage, or 24/7 staffing. OBE can process forms and existing recordings, produce transcripts, and prepare call information for staff review.
04Who reviews these resources?
Tim Ottowitz, OBE's founder and CEO, reviews the descriptions of the product and its operation. The pages describe a way to organize the work. They do not give legal advice.
Keep reading
Choose the guide that matches the work in front of you.
Legal intake library
Find the part of intake your team is fixing.
These guides cover what happens after a new inquiry arrives: follow-up, staffing, documents, recorded calls, software, and campaign volume.
Tim Ottowitz, Founder and CEO, OBE, checks these pages for product and operations accuracy. His review is not legal advice or a review by counsel in any jurisdiction. OBE publishes software and operations information. Each firm sets its own policies for conflicts, acceptance, engagement, qualification, and filing, including which operational steps authorized staff may handle. Lawyers remain responsible for legal judgment, analysis, strategy, and client advice. Product terms and operating limits are set by the signed agreement.
Bring one case
Show us where the file breaks down.
Bring a case type your team knows well. We'll follow an accepted lead into lawyer review, using the real questions, documents, handoffs, and exceptions along the way. We'll mark each place someone retypes a fact, hunts for a source, or waits for a missing record.
Map Your First Case